1Password printing features

bdurham
bdurham
Community Member
edited January 2019 in Mac

These questions (and/or suggestions for future features) are about 1Password's File > Print functionality.

  1. Is there a way to get summarized printouts, eg. without webform and/or previous password values? Use case: Printing emergency backup output in a minimalist way?

  2. Is there a way to get just a list of items and user names via either the print or File > Export commands? Use case: I'm a consultant and setup customer specific vaults that each contain a surprising amount of customer specific items. I'm looking for a quick way to get a summary list of these items for documentation purposes without revealing secure info. A CSV export option would be a bonus.

  3. Selecting a subset of items by selecting a specific vault, tag, WatchTower group, or search and printing works as expected. But manually selecting a group of items by Cmd or Shift clicking groups of items does not print the selection. Is there a way to select and print a specific group of items (eg. am I'm doing this wrong?) or might this be a possible future enhancement?

Thank you


1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided

Comments

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @bdurham - thanks for the suggestions! While we provide printing functionality for 1Password, we don't recommend it in the vast majority of cases, because of the problems it can create. First, printed passwords represent a snapshot of your data (sort of like a backup file would be in the digital realm). That means they're great for seeing what the state of your data was at the exact moment you ran the print job. But as time passes and you add to, change and even delete from (not to mention move around) your data, any printouts become more and more unrepresentative of the current state of your data. Since by far the most-often cited reason for wanting a printout is as a backup, "just in case," this can be problematic if regular printouts are not made - in other words, old ones thrown away and new ones created. Unless one has only a few 1Password items, this can be quite a lot of paper. But most people don't update their printouts, they just print them once and think "well, that's handled," but that statement becomes less and less true over time.

    Additionally, multi-page 1Password printouts are, well, right there, available to anyone who comes across them. They can be lost/destroyed, and more importantly, they're actually rather easy to steal or copy unless one puts them in a floor safe or other safe and secured location.

    Lastly, with both standalone 1Password and now especially with 1password.com accounts, the backups made digitally are so robust - and MUCH more durable and easily update-able - that there's less and less reason to have paper copies. In standalone 1Password, a backup of your data is made once per day, and 50 backups are kept - once a day for a month, and then monthly after that. And if you make offsite backups of your data, it's nearly impossible to imagine being without your data in all but the most catastrophic circumstances. With 1password.com accounts, the redundancy is taken care of for you on the 1password.com servers, and is if anything even more robust.

    I understand your use-case is somewhat different than the average users, but I'm pointing this out for anyone else who may come across this thread, as a way of explaining why expanding the printing functionality of 1Password is something that would be quite far down our priority list, for the reasons I just gave: we don't recommend it, and there are a lot of other items that affect a far greater number of users that need developer attention/time. I'm not saying revisiting the print functionality is something we'd never revisit, just that it's unlikely to be anything we'll be looking at soon. However, thanks for sharing your use-case and your wishes for what you'd like to see. :)

  • bdurham
    bdurham
    Community Member
    edited January 2019

    @Lars: Excellent perspective and advice. Your answer might serve as a future FAQ as well? Regarding my use case for documentation purposes: Perhaps the ability to select items and copy to the clipboard in a CSV format (title, username, tags) might be a future, low priority feature? Thanks for the fast follow-up and the detailed answer - much appreciated!

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @bdurham - you're quite welcome! :)

This discussion has been closed.